Removing system encryption with [[dm-crypt with LUKS|dm-crypt and LUKS]].

−

−

= Prerequisite s=

+

== Prerequisites==

*an encrypted root filesystem or other filesystem you cannot umount while booted into your operating system

*an encrypted root filesystem or other filesystem you cannot umount while booted into your operating system

*enough drive space somewhere to store a backup

*enough drive space somewhere to store a backup

Line 11:

Line 10:

*a few hours

*a few hours

−

=Boot into a Live Environment=

+

==Boot into a Live Environment==

Download and burn the latest archlive cd, stick it in, reboot your system and boot to cd

Download and burn the latest archlive cd, stick it in, reboot your system and boot to cd

−

=Activate Your Partitions=

+

−

==Note About Different Setups==

+

==Activate Your Partitions==

+

+

===Note About Different Setups===

I'm using a setup that looks like this:

I'm using a setup that looks like this:

{|border=1 style="text-align: center;"

{|border=1 style="text-align: center;"

Line 31:

Line 32:

Disregard the grey stuff, it only adds a frame of reference.

Disregard the grey stuff, it only adds a frame of reference.

−

The green partitons are the ones we're going to be modifying. you should make sure any green text matches your system's setup.

+

The green partitons are the ones we are going to be modifying. you should make sure any green text matches your system's setup.

−

the yellow parition is the one we're going to be using as storage space. you should feel free to change this at will.

+

the yellow parition is the one we are going to be using as storage space. you should feel free to change this at will.

on my system, I have

on my system, I have

−

<span style="color: green;">myvg</span> contains lvs called <span style="color: green;">cryptroot</span> and <span style="color: green;">cryptswap</span>. they are located at <span style="color: green;">/dev/mapper/myvg_cryptroot</span> and <span style="color: green;">/dev/mapper/myvg_cryptswap</span>. Upon boot, luks is used along with a few crypttab entries to create <span style="color: green;">/dev/mapper/root</span> and <span style="color: green;">/dev/mapper/swap</span>. I won't be unencrypting my swap as part of this guide, as undoing the swap encryption doesn't require any complex backup or restoration.

+

<span style="color: green;">myvg</span> contains lvs called <span style="color: green;">cryptroot</span> and <span style="color: green;">cryptswap</span>. they are located at <span style="color: green;">/dev/mapper/myvg_cryptroot</span> and <span style="color: green;">/dev/mapper/myvg_cryptswap</span>. Upon boot, luks is used along with a few crypttab entries to create <span style="color: green;">/dev/mapper/root</span> and <span style="color: green;">/dev/mapper/swap</span>. I will not be unencrypting my swap as part of this guide, as undoing the swap encryption does not require any complex backup or restoration.

Your setup WILL be different. different filesystems require different tools to effectively backup and restore their data. Most of you will not be using LVM and can ignore that part.

Your setup WILL be different. different filesystems require different tools to effectively backup and restore their data. Most of you will not be using LVM and can ignore that part.

XFS requires xfs_copy to ensure an effective backup and restore. DD is insufficient. you can use DD with ext2,3,and 4. (Someone please comment on jfs, reiserfs and reiser4fs)

XFS requires xfs_copy to ensure an effective backup and restore. DD is insufficient. you can use DD with ext2,3,and 4. (Someone please comment on jfs, reiserfs and reiser4fs)

Prerequisites

an encrypted root filesystem or other filesystem you cannot umount while booted into your operating system

enough drive space somewhere to store a backup

an Arch Linux (or other) live CD

a few hours

Boot into a Live Environment

Download and burn the latest archlive cd, stick it in, reboot your system and boot to cd

Activate Your Partitions

Note About Different Setups

I'm using a setup that looks like this:

disk

ntfs

myvg(lvm)

ntfs

other os

cryptswap(lv)

cryptroot(lv)

Shared

luks

luks

swap

root(xfs)

Disregard the grey stuff, it only adds a frame of reference.
The green partitons are the ones we are going to be modifying. you should make sure any green text matches your system's setup.
the yellow parition is the one we are going to be using as storage space. you should feel free to change this at will.

on my system, I have
myvg contains lvs called cryptroot and cryptswap. they are located at /dev/mapper/myvg_cryptroot and /dev/mapper/myvg_cryptswap. Upon boot, luks is used along with a few crypttab entries to create /dev/mapper/root and /dev/mapper/swap. I will not be unencrypting my swap as part of this guide, as undoing the swap encryption does not require any complex backup or restoration.

Your setup WILL be different. different filesystems require different tools to effectively backup and restore their data. Most of you will not be using LVM and can ignore that part.
XFS requires xfs_copy to ensure an effective backup and restore. DD is insufficient. you can use DD with ext2,3,and 4. (Someone please comment on jfs, reiserfs and reiser4fs)

Enter your password.
Note: Do not mount the partitions you intend to operate on except the backup partition. If you have already mounted a partition other than your backup partition, you can safely umount it now.
Once you have identifed and activated your partitions, you are ready to move on to step 3.

Mounting your backup space

Only if you are using NTFS to store your backup

# pacman -S ntfs-3g

This step will look different for you, but it is important.
Without it, where will you store your backup?

# mount -t ntfs-3g -o rw /dev/sda5 /media/Shared

or you can use netcat to store your backup on a remote system

TODO: add netcat instructions.

Backup Your Data

Using xfs_copy:

xfs_copy -db /dev/mapper/root/media/Shared/backup_root.img

Note: -d tells xfs_copy to preserve uuids and -b tells xfs_copy to work with filesystems that do not allow direct io (like ntfs-3g).

Using dd:

dd if=/dev/mapper/root of=/media/Shared/backup_root.img

Now walk away. Get yourself something to eat or drink, or do some homework. This will take a while.

Undo Encryption

Now the crucial moment, the point of no return if you will. Make sure you are ready to do this. If you plan to undo this later, you will have to almost start from scratch. You know how fun that is.

cryptsetup luksClose root
lvm lvremove myvg/cryptroot

Restore Data

We have to create a new logical volume to house our root filesystem, then we restore our filesystem.